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Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII
It turns out there once were many more labyrinthine paths and dungeons in Final Fantasy XIII, but they got cut. An interview (in Japanese) over at FF-Reunion with art director Isamu Kamikokuryou ("No you!" to his friends) has him saying that the team removed enough extra locations from the title to make up a whole other game entirely. Sections cut include a secret base for Snow's hero squad, a character's home that included a park, and even a zoo inside one of the game's amusement park areas. This is all more impressive when you consider that Square Enix is expecting to need three DVDs to hold everything that's still in the Xbox 360 version of the game. But FFXIII completists, don't worry too much -- we're sure some of that content will appear sometime during the game's 10-year cycle.
Apple's Insomnia Film Festival cancelled
Excited for Apple's Insomnia Film Festival? Don't hold your breath -- Apple has contacted participants via email to say that the event has been canceled. The "festival" was supposed to be Apple giving participants a list of elements and 24 hours to make a three-minute film about them, but after some unexpected server problems, the festival was postponed until after the holidays last year. The website is gone, and they are now saying that they are "unable to reschedule the festival as hoped," which means it's off indefinitely. The email also says that Apple teams "constantly seek new and better ways to showcase your artistic expression," and that there will be other "opportunities to participate in Apple creative festivals." Unfortunately, they're no more specific than that -- it's unknown whether the problems last year are still going on, or if Apple has something else going down that can't conflict with Insomnia. It's too bad -- it would have been great to see what kinds of films came out of the competition. But of course given what's going on with the economy and what's happening at AAPL, this was probably just the first corner cut.
Motorola's co-CEOs graciously cut own pay in cost-cutting plan
Motorola was already in the hurt locker well before this latest economic crapstorm went into overdrive, so it stands to reason that pennies are being pinched and belts are being tightened across the board out in Schaumburg. 'Course, all sorts of jobs have already been cut, so what else can you do? For starters, you can trim a few bucks off the salaries of two of the companies' more well-paid individuals -- co-CEOs Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha -- both of whom will "voluntarily" take 25 percent pay cuts in 2009 (don't worry, they'll still be able to make ends meet). Additionally, Brown will skip out on his 2008 bonus while Jha will have his bonus reduced by the total amount of Brown's forfeited bonus, and he'll take the remainder as restricted-sale stock instead of the cold, hard cash that might be a little more valuable than shares of Motorola should the company go south. For employees without seven-figure salaries, they're looking at frozen pension plans and an elimination of the company's match into retirement accounts for '09. Sign of the times, eh?[Thanks, Joe M.]
Samsung scales back flat-screen output by 5% to fight bulging inventories
Ah, how quickly things can change in this volatile, volatile world. At the tail-end of June, Samsung seemed pretty adamant that it would be keeping its flat-panel production lines humming along as usual. Enter a tiny factor called the worldwide credit crisis, and that plan begins to look terrible. In an effort to "cope with excess inventory amid lackluster demand from global markets," Sammy has decided to lower its panel output by about 5% (which it has been doing since August, actually), though it is keeping a close eye on demand in case it needs to ramp back up in short order. Whatever happens, we're just hoping for lower prices for consumers come Black Friday (and beyond).
Motorola cuts another 4,000 jobs
Recognizing that its first round of 3,500 job cuts wasn't enough to bring it back into the black, Moto has announced -- as expected -- a second round of layoffs to the tune of 4,000 axed positions. Ultimately, the company expects to save $600 million from the new cuts after they've been bunched in with "prioritization of investments, continuing discretionary-spending controls, general and administrative expenses and site rationalization" (whether any of that verbage actually means anything, we don't know, but it certainly sounds frugal). For the record, the first 3,500 cuts are apparently on track to be completed by June 30, but with newly-announced "restructuring charges" totalling $300 million, it's anybody's guess whether these moves are ultimately going to make America's only top five manufacturer profitable again.
First Nintendo Short Cuts entry uploaded to the tubes
The first entry for Nintendo's Short Cuts Showcase contest has hit You Tube and, as one might expect, it centers around a certain lad with a fondness for the color green. Hopefully, this will give you a better idea of what Nintendo is exactly looking for and improve your chances at acquiring that wonderful prize of $10,000 USD. Wonder how much that would be in Rupees?Video has been embedded past the break.
